Residents of a Kaneohe neighborhood were shaken Tuesday when a 20-year-old man, who allegedly injured two officers while fleeing and was shot by police in Waimanalo, was spotted running through their yards.
"He was hiding in the bushes," Kelly Contrades, 43, who lives on Kuu Home Place, said. "He ran down the hill … but I have three pit bulls in the backyard."
She said he ran back up a portion of the roughly 40-foot, near-vertical hillside and descended into a neighbor’s backyard. Several police officers apprehended the man in Contrades’ next-door neighbor’s front yard.
The pursuit began before 1:30 p.m. in Waimanalo.
Police said the man was sitting in a stolen car near Waimanalo District Park just before 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. When officers approached, the man suddenly started up the car and allegedly hit one officer in the leg. That officer fired several shots at the driver, striking the suspect once, said police Maj. Ryan Borges, commander of the Kaneohe District.
The man then fled in the car, and officers pursued briefly until he headed toward Kaneohe.
Shortly after, 911 callers told dispatchers that a white Honda had collided with another vehicle near Kaneohe Elementary School at 45-495 Kamehameha Highway and that the Honda’s driver abandoned the car and was running in the neighborhood, police said.
Officers in the area found the suspect with a single gunshot wound to his left abdomen, Borges said.
Paramedics treated the man and transported him in critical condition to the Queen’s Medical Center, according to an Emergency Medical Services report.
The driver was arrested on suspicion of first-degree attempted murder, second-degree assault on a police officer, unauthorized control of a propelled vehicle and multiple traffic violations.
Police said the suspect is believed to have been a passenger in a stolen vehicle police stopped Thursday. In that case the driver was arrested, but the passenger fled from police near Likelike and Kahekili highways.
Contrades, who saw Tuesday’s capture, said the suspect had a wound with dried blood.
After the suspect was taken from the scene, officers continued to walk the hillside, which is covered with thick brush. "It looked like they were looking for something," Contrades said.
A source close to the investigation said the man had what appeared to be a shank while he was seated in the car in Waimanalo.
Police said the officer with the leg injury was taken to Castle Medical Center.
The other officer’s injuries were not life-threatening. Borges did not address how the other officer was injured.
The suspect has five felony convictions, including burglary, car theft and a weapons offense, police said.
Two schools, Kaneohe and Maunawili elementary, were placed on lockdown during the incident.
Kaneohe Elementary is across the highway from where the man abandoned the car.
Contrades said she was initially alerted something was wrong when her three dogs started barking in the backyard.
When she looked outside, she saw about five police officers, then 10 more arrived, "searching everybody’s yards," using binoculars, she said.
"We heard, ‘Get down! Get down!’" she said.
A man who lives in a house at the top of the hillside above hers had spotted the man, Contrades said.
Mark Whitaker, 33, who lives on the corner of Kamehameha Highway and Kuu Home Place, said, "It’s a little scary. I have a 15-month-old son. Luckily he wasn’t home today." He added, "This neighborhood has a lot of kids."
Another neighbor said the family living in the house on the property where the suspect was captured has two young children.
Whitaker said the suspect created a dangerous situation, and if police had felt it necessary to fire shots near his home, he would have trusted their handling of the matter. "They’re professional," he said.
A 27-year-old resident of Kuu Home Place named Richard, who declined to provide his last name, said the incident did not mark the first time someone tried to flee from police on his tiny street. "It’s hard to escape from this street," he said.
